THE TRIUMPH OF GOD COMES ACCORDING TO GOD’S SET PURPOSE

Matthew 26: 1-16

INTRODUCTION

I’m reading the book of Job right now in my personal Bible reading. If you’ll remember, Job is described as the most righteous man alive. In chapters 1 &2 we are told that as the result of God’s interaction with Satan in heaven Job loses all of his property and his seven children in one day. Then he is afflicted with painful boils all over his body. Three friends come to comfort Job. The next 35 chapters are a discussion between Job and his friends about the meaning of Jobs suffering. Job says dozens of times throughout the book that this entire calamity was sent to him by God. All of Jobs friends agree, as does God himself on several occasions. There is no question in the book of Job who is ultimately responsible for Job’s suffering, all agree, God is. However, the question that consumes the book is how can Job’s righteousness, God’s justice and Job’s suffering be reconciled. All of Job’s friends say that God is completely just; he always gives people what they deserve. The righteous always receive good from God and God always punishes the wicked. Therefore, Job must be wicked, no matter what he says. Job, for his part argues that the wicked often are not punished. While he also affirms God’s justice, yet he is completely confused as to why this has happened to him. He wants more than anything else to get to talk with God and have God explain himself. The suffering of righteous Job challenges God’s claims to be fair, as far as Job is concerned. God does answer Job in chapters 38-41 but I’ll let you read that for yourself.

The reason I bring Job up to you is because in our study of the last week of Jesus’ life, we are coming face to face with the same problem with which the book of Job is consumed. Matthew has demonstrated throughout his gospel that Jesus Christ is God’s Son, the Savior of the world. He is loved by God as no other human has ever been loved. He is perfectly righteous, as no other human being has ever been. Especially in the last 3 chapters Jesus has claimed to be God himself, the judge of the world. Yet, chapters 26 and 27 are going to record the betrayal, suffering and death of this Savior. How can it be that the perfect Son of God, the Savior of the world suffers such a horrible fate? Are Satan and evil men really in charge of this world? Is there no God in heaven or is the God in heaven so weak that he cannot stop such horrible things from happening?

Matthew uses masterful storytelling to show that the most evil act ever perpetrated in human history was a part of God’s perfect and predetermined plan to save his people. God works in and through the most evil act ever done to accomplish the greatest good ever performed. Rather than the death of Jesus being an evidence of the power of evil, the injustice or weakness of God or the pretense of Jesus, it is the greatest demonstration of the glory of God’s sovereign power in the history of the universe. What is revealed to us here about God’s role in the death of Jesus is absolutely necessary for us to know as we live in this world as God’s children and yet beset by all kinds of evil and suffering. In this passage we will see that…

MAIN POINT

God saves his people according to his predetermined and set plan in order to…

I. Display the glory of Christ (vv. 1-2)

This is now the fourth time Matthew records Jesus telling his disciples that he is going to be betrayed and killed. On the previous three occasions he has told them it would happen in Jerusalem and that the Jewish leaders and the Gentile rulers would kill him, but now he tells them the time of his crucifixion. He tells them he is going to be killed on the Passover, two days from now. This is late on the Tuesday evening prior to his arrest and death. He tells his disciples that he will be arrested on the day of Passover. I want to consider with you what Jesus’ knowledge of the location, people and time of his betrayal and death tell us about him. Then I want to consider God’s purpose in having Jesus killed on Passover. In doing this it is my intention to help us all to see the splendor of Christ.

First, Jesus’ predictions of his death are a pulling back of the cloak of his humanity to reveal the glory of his divinity. He shows here his power of divine omniscience. He knows with absolute certainty that all of the human choices that must be made in order for him to die on Passover, will be made. Jesus knows, as God knows, what the future holds. As the Psalmist says, he knows every word that every human will speak before they speak it and every action they will perform before they perform it. He knows the end from the beginning. You and I don’t even know what we are going to do later today. Jesus knows what each human is going to do in order to bring him to his appointed death.

Second, in the ensuing story it appears that Jesus’ life is taken from him, that evil men take his life. However, Jesus, by telling us that he is going to be betrayed and crucified shows that he is dying by his own choosing. His crucifixion is voluntary. As he says in John 10:18, “No one takes it (my life) from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.” His is not the death of a martyr who is killed against his will. Rather his death is the death of love. He is like the soldier who falls on the grenade to save his buddies in the foxhole with him. He is like the mother who puts the lifejacket on her child and not herself and so drowns. He goes to the cross because he wants to go to the cross, for the love of his Father and of his people, not because someone is making him go or forcing him against his will. The voluntary death of Jesus does not show how valuable we are, it shows how valuable he is. There is no one else like him, who willingly endures what he never would have to endure if he chose not to. Romans 5: 6-8.

Third, as we’ll see more plainly in a moment, he goes on his timetable, no one else’s. It is not simply that he knows he will die on Passover, but that he has determined to die on the Passover. He is achieving his great work, giving his life a ransom for many, exactly as he determined. He is the one who fixed the place, the people and the time, no one else.

Finally, consider the glory of Christ revealed in the fact that he is going to be crucified on the day of Passover.

Passover is the first day of the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread in which the Jewish people celebrate God’s delivering them out of the land of slavery, the land of Egypt. Do you remember the story? The nation Israel was living for hundreds of years as slaves in Egypt. God sent Moses to deliver his people out of their slavery. Moses went to Pharoah, the king of Egypt and commanded him to let God’s people go. Pharaoh refused and so God sent 10 miraculous plagues upon Egypt to get the king to let the people go. The tenth plague was God sending the angel of death throughout Egypt to kill the firstborn son of every household, including the firstborn male offspring of all the cattle in the land. God told the people of Israel how they could avoid losing their firstborn sons. He told them to bring a year old, male sheep, with no defect to live in their homes with them on the tenth day of the first month of the Jewish year. On the fourteenth day of the month they were to kill the sheep at twilight, drain his blood into a bowl and then take a branch of hyssop and dip it in the blood and spread it over the top of their door and along both sides. God promised, “The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”

Those Passover lambs are the symbol of the ultimate Lamb of God who comes to shed his blood so that the sins of all who will take refuge under that blood will escape the wrath of God, the angel of death. God’s plan to save his people included the slavery and salvation of Israel and included the celebration of the Passover for over 1500 years and included Jesus dying on the 14 th day of the first month of the Jewish year at twilight. God intends that we see in the Passover feast a portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of every believing sinner. Unlike the lambs that had no choice in their death, he freely, out of love for his Father and for us, offered himself as the final lamb to take away the sins of the world. He did it to rescue us from our slavery to sin, to Satan, and to death. He did it so that we might come out of the land of slavery to worship him.

God saves his people according to his predetermined and set plan in order to…

•  Display the glory of Christ

•  And in order to…

II. Display his power over evil (vv. 3-5 & 14-16)

The contrast that Matthew establishes in vv. 1-5 is absolutely stunning. Verses 1-2 take place on the Mt. of Olives, in the town of Bethany. This is across the Kidron Valley from Mt. Zion, upon which is located the city of Jerusalem. At the very same time that Jesus is telling his disciples that in two days, on the day of Passover, he is going to be killed, across the valley, in the city of Jerusalem the Jewish religious leaders are meeting and plotting how they might seize him and kill him. They are having a secret meeting in the house of the high priest, Caiaphas in order to make a sly plan to capture and kill Jesus. If it weren’t so evil, it would be a hilarious contrast. These powerful men, gathered together, whispering in secret darkness about their reprehensible plot to kill Jesus. They think no one knows and no one sees. Here’s Jesus, sitting in a well lit room, openly telling his disciples what they are planning to do. The religious leaders presume they have all the power and that what they are doing is unknown. Jesus knows and decrees what they will do and when they will do it.

There is a significant difference between what these men are plotting and what Jesus is predicting. Jesus says he will be betrayed and crucified on Passover. These men say that they will not kill him during the seven-day Passover feast or there may be a riot. The population of Jerusalem is about five times normal with all the Jewish people who have come for the feast. Many of these people believe that Jesus is the Messiah. In fact, just two days earlier the crowds had welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem as the Messiah. So these men know that it would be very unsafe to try and take Jesus in the midst of this crowd. They could well have a riot on their hands if they attempted to move against him. So they reason and plan. Whose plan is going to stand, the religious leaders or Jesus’? Will he die after the Passover feast or will he die on the day of Passover, at twilight? Jesus was arrested Thursday evening and died on Friday, the day of the Passover sacrifice.

What are we witnessing here? It is God’s will that Jesus die for the sins of all who will trust him. It is his will that he die on the day of Passover. It is his will that he die by crucifixion, that is, at the hands of the Romans. It is his will that he be betrayed. All of this willing by God is good, not evil. He is presenting Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement in order to make it possible for he to forgive guilty sinners and count them righteous while still upholding his justice and holiness. However, at the very same time these men are willing evil. They are plotting and planning to murder an innocent man from the basest of motives. They are jealous of him and afraid he will take away their prestigious position in Israel. These are evil men, acting with evil intent and who will suffer forever in hell for the evil they are doing. Yet, they are doing exactly what God wants them to do at exactly the time he wants them to do it.

How is this so? Did God put the hatred for Jesus in their hearts? Absolutely not. Did he make them plot to murder Jesus? No. Rather, he is merely permitting them to do what they want to do. Except that he is going to make sure that they fulfill their lust for murder at the exact time that he wants them to do it. They have wanted to kill Jesus on many other occasions. At those times he restrained them. Now they want to kill Jesus later than he wants and so he merely goads them to do what they want to do sooner than they planned to do it. God does not do evil but God rules over the evil hearts and evil acts of evil men in such a way that their evil acts fulfill his good purposes. In this case, his purpose is the salvation of the world.

Now I want you to skip down to vv. 14-16. Sometime after Jesus says he will be handed over and crucified on the Passover and after the religious leaders plot to seize and kill him, Judas Iscariot sneaks away from the company of Jesus and his other disciples and goes to the chief priests with a diabolical offer. He agrees to betray Jesus for the paltry sum of 30 pieces of silver. The arrangement of Matthew’s narrative and the language he uses shows that this is not simply the act of a man. This is part of the predetermined and set purpose of God. The religious leaders are planning on waiting until after the Passover feast is done, but now, to their joyful surprise, one of Jesus’ own companions has come forward to betray Jesus into their hands. They cannot believe their good fortune. Judas’ coming forward changes their plans and leads to Jesus’ arrest on Thursday and crucifixion on Friday. Twice in these verses Judas agrees to “hand over” Jesus, the very same word that Jesus uses in v. 2 when he says he will be “handed over”. In addition, the thirty pieces of silver are the amount that God says through Zechariah in about 450 B.C., that the nation Israel valued him. In short, while Judas is the one who hates Jesus and who wants to betray him, God is the one who is directing his steps so that he accomplishes his betrayal on God’s timetable and to accomplish his purpose of saving his people. Men freely carry out the evil they want to do but the evil they do perfectly fulfills the good purposes of God. Judas and the religious leaders are about to carry out the most wicked act ever perpetrated upon planet earth. They are guilty and accountable for the evil they do. Yet their evil acts perfectly accomplish God’s holy will. The God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth. His purposes will stand. He does whatever he is pleased to do. No one can deliver from his hand or ask him, “What are you doing?”

It is this fact that gives hope to all the suffering of God’s people through the ages. We can look at the suffering of Jesus and the evil done to him and the glorious and eternal good that came from all this evil and know that God has ordained the evil done to us for the fulfillment of his perfect will and our eternal good. This is why Paul says about the suffering he endured in the province of Asia, “ This happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on him who raises the dead.” This is why Peter says, “In this (coming salvation) you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith…may be proved genuine.” Later he says, “So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful creator and continue to do good.” It is why the writer to the Hebrews says, when explaining the purpose of their suffering at the hands of their persecutors, “You have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: ‘My son do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he flogs everyone he accepts as a son.’ Endure hardship as discipline…” If you are a Christian, you can always know that God ordains the evil that is done to you for his glory and your eternal joy. Those who do evil are blameworthy, should be resisted and will be punished. However, we do not need to fear or be angry as God works all things together for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose.

God saves his people according to his predetermined and set plan in order to…

•  Display the glory of Christ

•  Display his power over evil

•  And in order to…

III. Display the glory of his grace to sinners (vv. 6-13)

Matthew inserts, in the midst of his description of the sovereign control of God over the evil deeds of men a story that all four of the gospels record. Matthew, in his telling of the story of Jesus, often changes the chronological order of events around in order to place incidents together to make a point. This is a perfect example of his method. We know from John’s gospel that the pouring of perfume on Jesus by this woman occurred on Saturday night, before the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Yet Matthew inserts the story here, in the midst of events on Tuesday, to highlight a remarkable contrast. Notice that in v. 13 Jesus says that the story of this woman pouring expensive perfume over the head and body of Jesus to prepare his body for burial is going to be told wherever the gospel is preached. Why would Jesus want this story to be told? What is there in this story that is so fitting to the good news of Christ’s life, suffering, death and resurrection? What I want you to see here is the way that God’s grace towards undeserving sinners in highlighted in this incident and the way that grace’s effect, faith and love to Christ is shown.

Jesus is in Bethany at a dinner party with his disciples in the home of a man known as Simon the leper. Presumably this leprous man was cleansed by Jesus. While they are reclining at the low table eating their supper a woman comes into the room and standing over Jesus breaks the long neck of a white, alabaster jar of expensive perfume and pours it over Jesus’ head and it runs down his face and unto his entire body. The entire room is immediately filled with the sweet fragrance of the potent perfume. John tells us that the value of the perfume was one year’s wages. In our currency that means this perfume was worth about $40,000.

Look at the shock of the disciples. It is a shock that all of us would share. It’s the bewilderment we feel when we hear about the person who spent $5000 to buy a ticket to the Super Bowl. It’s the distress a parent has when they discover their teenager has fifty CD’s at $12 a pop. It’s the disbelief we feel when we hear about Alec Rodriguez being paid $250 million to play professional baseball. It’s the astonishment we feel when we find out our neighbor spent $50,000 to buy a Hummer. It’s the amazement we feel when we hear that the citizens of the U.S. spend over $1 billion a year on pet food. All of us have felt the shock of these disciples when we hear about someone spending outlandish sums of money on things that we think are a complete waste. When we hear about people lavishing enormous sums on people and objects that we do not value, we are mortified. Often we add to our astonishment the righteous indignation that this money could have been spent on many more worthwhile things, like providing for the poor. My mom, who is on the board of directors of a nursing home, regularly laments the outlandish amounts of money paid to professional athletes and the small amounts paid to caregivers in nursing homes. The disciples, just like us, don’t keep their opinions to themselves. They begin to give this woman a hard time. They chastise her for such an incredible waste. They say things to her like, “Woman, haven’t you been paying attention to what Jesus has been doing and saying? Don’t you know that we are to take care of the poor? Why in the world have you wasted this valuable perfume by pouring it upon Jesus? Just think of all the poor people, the homeless children we could have helped if you had sold this and used it to help others. What an incredible waste!” They are full of righteous indignation.

Now look at how Jesus responds. He commands them to stop giving her a hard time. The fact is that this woman has “worked a good work” for Jesus. She has done a morally commendable thing, not a morally despicable thing as the disciples are claiming. Notice how carefully Jesus commends her action and condemns the disciples’ complaints. First, he says the poor are always with you. He is saying that it is right to take care of the poor and that is something that should always be the concern of the God’s people. He is not saying that the disciples are wrong for saying the poor should be cared for. However, he is saying that he will not always be physically present with them. In other words, there is something unique about the historical moment they are in that makes this act morally commendable. If he were not physically present, then this act would be morally contemptible. What Jesus says is that this woman has anointed his body with perfume to prepare it for burial.

Her act is morally commendable for four reasons. First , it is commendable because it is out of a heart that loves and trusts Jesus. Her lavish act is an expression of her love for Christ. Second , it is commendable because the value of Jesus is expressed in the value of the perfume. He alone is worth such extravagance. Third , it is commendable because this devotion to Christ is the only motive that produces a true love for the poor, as Jesus says in 25:40. Those who love Christ are known by their love for the poor. Fourth , her act is the result of God’s grace and a response to it. We are not told if she knows what she is doing or not. We do know her act is an acted prophecy. She is preparing his body for his burial within the week. God is the one who has moved her to this action. He has graciously worked in her this love and this action. Her action is a response to the grace of God that is shown in the death of Christ. Christ is worshipped because he dies for the sins of his people. He is worthy of this extravagance because he is dying. It is his death and burial that is the center of the good news and her extravagant love is the only fitting response to Jesus’ death and burial.

Can you see why Jesus would want this story told every place the gospel is preached? The infinite value of God’s grace in the voluntary death of Christ for sin is shown. The necessary response of faith and love is revealed in her action. Additionally, the grace of God is seen in that all the disciples are witnesses of this act. Judas, the betrayer is given amazing revelation of the worth and value of Christ. He is given insight into the plan of God to kill his son for the sins of his people, even though, Jesus knew from the beginning who it was who would betray him. The rest of the disciples are shown for the ignorant and dull men that they are and yet they become recipients of all the benefits of Christ’s death, which in this incident they are despising. They do not value Jesus as they ought and yet Jesus dies for them and gives them divine light so they can know him. Grace is everywhere evident in this story. Christ dies for unworthy sinners. Christ enables unworthy sinners to know and understand realities that are beyond them. He produces this love in this woman and then he enables her to act in accord with knowledge that no human possesses. The betrayer is given information that should restrain him from his deed. The disciples are included in God’s salvation in spite of persistence ignorance and hardness of heart. In the midst of this cauldron of hatred and self-righteousness and ignorance is this shining example of the grace of God producing faith and love in a woman.

In a few days, we are going to give gifts to those we love. When we give, as we ought to give, there is no counting of the cost. When we give out of our love for and desire to please the one we give the gift to there is no regret or resentment for the time and money it cost us to give the gift. We give out of the pleasure of giving. It is our joy to do so. This is how this woman poured out this perfume on Jesus. Though it was worth a year’s wages, yet she did not hesitate or count the cost. Jesus was worth the waste of her precious perfume. She was delighted to part with this valuable commodity to show her love and gratitude to this great Savior. So it is with all who are the recipients of God’s grace in Christ. We gladly give away all that is valuable on earth in order to show the greatness of Christ’s love for us. We show the worth of Christ in his death for sinners by giving away our lives in love to him by loving others. We deny ourselves the pleasures of sin and of this world out of our love for and devotion to Christ. We come to church on Sunday, we pray, we read our Bibles as expressions of how much we value Christ. We “waste” our time, lavishing it upon the unseen Christ, not for some earthly benefit but because he is worthy of our time and attention.

God saves his people according to his predetermined and set plan in order to…

•  Display the glory of Christ

•  Display his power over evil

•  Display the glory of his grace to sinners